pazvspezTell them apart

Which to use

“paz” and “pez” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#435
“paz” frequency rank
#5,028
“pez” frequency rank
5463
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature paz pez
Definition Condición espiritual o anímica de tranquilidad o quietud. Cualquiera de unas 30 000 especies de animales vertebrados, caracterizados por ser los únicos adaptados a respirar agua durante todo su ciclo vital. Forman un grupo sin rigor taxonómico que comprende varios grupos evolutivos diferentes, que sólo tienen en común su adaptación al medio acuático.

Where the eye mixes paz and pez

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
paz
3 ch
pez

Look-alike desk: paz vs pez

A purely visual mix-up. paz ([ˈpas]) and pez ([ˈpes]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - a in “paz” becomes e in “pez”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5463, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

paz is recorded at frequency rank #435, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈpas]. pez is at rank #5,028, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈpes].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 5463, this pair ranks #313,563 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of paz vs pez

Shared letters: pz. Private to "paz": a. Private to "pez": e.

"paz" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "pez" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "paz" for "pez" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈpas] versus [ˈpes]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "paz" or "pez" show up more?
"paz" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #435 in our Spanish list, against #5,028 for "pez". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "paz" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #313,563 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "paz" and "pez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pez vs prey". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #313,563 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list